The Taking of Sarna
by BrotherOfSteel
Summary: 5 years after the halo event, the UNSC begins its campaign to retake the colonies left abandoned during the covenant war. Elite ODST teams have taken the place of Spartans for special operations, this is the story of one of the first-The Lunar Wolves
1. A Day In The Life

quick note: this is my first fic EVER so please keep that in mind when reading and reviewing it please :)

"_**Si Vis pacem, para bellum " "If you wish for peace, prepare for war"- **_Vegetius

The world was on fire, there was only heat, and pain, but that world only lasted for a few seconds, and the one that replaced it was only slightly less dismal. Captain McMillan shook his head, the sensations of pain and heat and blinding light had passed. The pain was now but a throb in his left arm, and the feeling of burning heat had receded completely, his vision was still blurry but he could now make out some shapes, many of which were moving around. One of these shapes moved closer and resolved into Private Anderson, one of the members of his Orbital Drop Shock Trooper squad. "You alright captain?" shouted the young soldier; McMillan finally had the clearness of mind to respond, "Yeah, I think I'll live." "Thought you were a goner sir, when that missile punched right through the wall you were taking cover behind. We feared the worst but it seems like the armor saved your life sir." As he spoke Anderson looked over his shoulder back at the gaping opening in the wall from which the sounds of a raging battle emanated.

Suddenly McMillan remembered what had happened, the rebels had attacked from an unexpected angle this time and as his men had repositioned themselves to fend off the attack, a rebel rocket team had appeared out of nowhere to flank them. He had been the only one close enough to do something about it and so had blindly, and now that he reflected on it perhaps stupidly, charged them. He took down one with sustained fire from his assault rifle, and stabbed his combat knife through the others neck. As he had turned to deal with the third one he found himself looking down the barrel of a rocket launcher, before the rebel soldier could fire a rocket at him he dove behind a half collapsed concrete wall, as he dove he primed and threw a frag at the unfortunate rebel. The rebel was probably blown to a bloody pulp by the grenade, but Captain Michael McMillan was in no position to find out as he had been abruptly knocked into the air by the resulting explosion that slammed through the wall.

"You want to give me a hand private?" asked McMillan as he attempted to get up "sure thing captain." Responded the trooper. As he stood up he noticed a stream of blood dripping down his arm, "Shrapnel must've punched through the ballistics under weave." Noted Anderson having noticed it too, "can you still move it?" "Yeah, yeah I can, stings like a bitch though." said McMillan as he moved his arm up and down, from the way the pain was he figured a small piece of shrapnel had simply torn through the outer part of his upper left arm and punched through the other side, an inspection of the other side of his arm confirming that theory. "Well, shall we rejoin the battle Anderson?" asked the now ready ODST captain, " Sir, yes, sir!" shouted the private. The two then proceeded to charge out of the destroyed building to join their brothers-in-arms.

The two UNSC ODST's pounded down the street that bore the signs of recent battle, fires burned in the crumpled husks of a few cars, and Rebel bodies lined the street. McMillan noted with satisfaction that there were no UNSC bodies lying with them _good_ he thought to himself, _maybe we'll get out without any casualties again, God knows our lucks been stretched to the limit lately_. As he approached two other ODST's crouching behind an overturned car, one of them quipped "Still alive eh captain? Good to see Anderson found you in one piece, that would've been a bitch to clean up." McMillan grinned underneath his visor and chuckled " I'm sure it would've been lieutenant, hoping for a field promotion?" "Not quite yet sir." Responded 1st Lieutenant Luke Miller as he fired at an enemy McMillan couldn't see.

As Miller turned back to reload McMillan had one question for him "status?" "The rebels almost had us sir, luckily thanks to the distraction you caused, Benson was able to out flank them and chew them up. We pushed them further down the street and requested reinforcements; we received two squads of PDF troops to help counter the assault, unfortunately their advance was countered by the rebels and they were driven back to this position. Garcia and I rushed over here to give them some support fire, and then Anderson reported you were alive." "Where's the rest of the squad?" asked McMillan, "Benson's giving some-" before Miller could finish, the distinctive sound of a heavy machine gun firing rang out and McMillan and Miller looked over their cover just in time to see a PDF soldier make a run for a new piece of cover and get torn to pieces by a newly set up rebel gun emplacement. The heavy caliber shells ripped through the combat armor of the soldier like a blowtorch through rice paper, blasting bloody holes through his chest and spraying blood and bone fragments down the street, several of the shells clipped his arm and blew it clean off. The soldier fell to the ground and a pool of blood began to spread around his body. "Holy shit!" exclaimed Anderson, who was huddled behind a wall "well this complicates things a bit." Muttered Miller.

"Damn!" swore Anderson as the rebel gunner fired at them, "we cant do shit while that things up!". "He's right you know.", said Miller as Anderson fired blindly around the corner of the wall hoping to land a lucky shot on the gunner, though somehow managing to hit seemingly everything except the gunner. "where's Sullivan?" asked McMillan as a thought occurred to him."no idea" responded Miller " he went off to go find a better perch when we pushed the rebels down the street, he could be anywhere now." "don't worry cap." said a familiar voice over the COM system " Don't you know the lunar wolves always got a guardian angel?" "bout damn time Sullivan, it was just starting to get pleasant down here. Where're you set up?" asked McMillan, "Oh about 50 yards behind you guys, just starting to take a bead on that fucker with HMG, hang on a sec..." two seconds later the distinctive crack of a sniper rifle sounded. McMillan watched the sabot-assisted bullet drill straight through the rebel gunner's head blowing out the back of it, and leaving a pretty gruesome splatter of brains and blood on the rubble behind the bastard.

upon losing his heavy support, the rebel commander seemed to think the better of assaulting this position, and the remainder of the rebel troops began to retreat, not without the PDF soldiers taking a few potshots at them anyway. a few seconds after Benson came tearing out from a side alley his battle rifle up and ready " aw damn captain i missed it!" complained the lunar wolves largest and strongest member, "dont worry Benson," said Miller " this party wasnt really worth coming to in the first place" "any injuries?" asked McMillan apprehensively, "besides you sir? nobody else has so much as a scrape." responded Benson. "damn good news sergeant, looks like we made through another day"said a relieved McMillan "Don't worry too much cap, just another day at the office." quipped sullivan, who had just arrived completing the squad of six. "damn straight corporal!" laughed Benson as the relief force arrived. _yeah just another day of death and destruction_ thought McMillan _wonder when we'll have to punch into this "office" tomorrow. _McMillan decided to let such dismal toughts pass as the lunar wolves-4th squad of the 2nd ODST battalion headed back to base victorious


	2. Departures and Preperations

"Damn fine work out there McMillan", said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Jakobi, commander of the 2nd ODST battalion "Holding that crossroads was certainly helpful for our final push"

" Final sir? But the rebel resistance is still active in many parts of the planet" queried McMillan

"Yes that's true captain, and good to see you can still keep up with the strategic situation, but we're pulling out in one day's time. The PDF can take it from here, and we're needed elsewhere." responded Jakobi

"where're we heading off to now sir?" asked McMillan

"Sarna in the Delta-Octavius system" answered Jakobi. McMillan's eyebrows went up "Lord Hood believes it's time to retake it, not to mention we could more than use the massive boost to our industrial capabilities." He Commented upon seeing McMillan's reaction; "now I want you to get out there and help 1st company get prepped for departure from Arcadia by 1600 hours tomorrow, dismissed."

"Sarna? We're finally going to retake Sarna?" asked Miller in disbelief "Bout time we got to it, I was wondering what was taking us so long."

"That was my first thought too, but don't forget Sarna's been out of contact for the last 12 years and their defenses weren't too shabby back then either. Hood's probably just being cautious, waiting until we had recovered enough strength to smash any resistance in one fell swoop." Responded McMillan as he informed his squad of their new objective.

"If there's even any resistance," quipped Garcia from his bunk "Do we even know if there is any?"

"I don't think Hood would commit so many assets to a world unless he was sure that it was necessary," said Sullivan as he cleaned his rifle, " what concerns me though is what kind of anti-orbital defenses they've got. If they have the right stuff it could really mess up our planet-strike, and nobody wants that"

"So what if they have good anti-orbital defenses? No planet is immune to an ODST planet-strike we've proven that often enough. It's not like these guys are the covenant, we can take them so long as we're smart about it. We're the best the UNSC has." Replied McMillan cutting through any more speculation, "You guys had better start getting prepped to leave this place, I want us good to go in 4 hours." "Sir! Yes sir!" was the unanimous response.

"So, how's the kid holding up?" asked miller as he helped Benson load the last crate of ammo onto the pelican

"He's not doing too shabby for a rookie." Benson grunted as he locked down the crate "Anderson's got a lot of potential provided he can keep his head on straight. That's his main problem, nerves, once he's gotten past that he could be our sixth."

That got Miller's attention, Benson giving his backing on rookie was a rare occurrence. The sergeant's skill for training new commandos for the ODST was second to none and Jakobi almost always had some new kid going through Benson's regime. Typically Benson would say the kid was "inadequate" for the lunar wolves and the newbie would be shipped off to join some other squad; Miller usually thought otherwise but McMillan trusted his sergeant's instincts, so in the end Miller did too. But every once in a blue moon there would be one who just had the stuff to get Benson's approval and the recruit would be inducted into the squad to serve as the sixth member for a variable amount of time, typically a year depending on the way certain battles were going.

"You're serious?" asked Miller after the pelican lifted off into the sunset

"yeah" responded Benson "I am. The kids got the stuff, there's no doubt about that, I'm going to talk with McMillan about it during the jump, see what we can do with him, and what his assignment will be." and with that the huge man walked off for the mess hall

_see what we can do with him my ass,_ thought Miller to himself as he watched Benson walk off, _you already know damn well what the hell this kid is good at, you always do_. Benson's kids, as the group of select few recruits who got his approval were known as, always turned out to be the best and brightest commanders and field operatives of the UNSC. Noone knew what his secret was, but as Garcia had put it one night while playing cards "_I wouldnt be surprised if he had a fucking time machine, just so he can see the way all the goddamn kids turn out_" Miller smiled to himself as he mulled over the subject, he snapped back to his senses just a night began to fall and headed off the barracks for their last night on this damn planet.

The blast from the jets of the pelicans was deafening to McMillan's unprotected ears, and it was always a surprise at how loud they were when you weren't wearing a helmet that protected against it. As was usual McMillan officially left the planet with his squad, while he had been on the _Iwo Jima_ all of last night going over the numerous engagements on this planet, he came back plantside to "dustoff with my boys" as he liked to say. as the last man boarded the dropship McMillan saluted his men, who crisply saluted back. After heading into the cockpit and taking his place in the copilots seat. Clearance was given, the rear hatch was sealed and the group of the five pelicans shot off towards space rapidly gaining speed in order to achieve escape velocity. As much a habit as the rest of this had been so was the last part, as the planet fell back behind him he reflected on the price of blood payed for it and chuckled to himself darkly as he wondered how much longer he could take this before he'd need to take a leave of absence.

As the hiss from the airlocks was fading the hatches of the pelicans opened to the docking area, the ODST's disembarked from their dropships as the mechanical arms of the docking bay advanced forward to help lock them down in preparation for the jump. The Lunar Wolves headed off to their quarters for some much needed rest after weeks of combat on Arcadia. As the _Iwo Jima's _engines powered up, a hum began to resound throughout the ship as power was increased in order to escape the gravity well. The young ,yet battle scarred _reclamation_ class cruiser moved through space to the system's jump point

"Sir the coordinates are set" the ship's navigator announced

"Punch it lieutenant" ordered Jakobi

"Aye sir, initiating slipspace jump in ...3...2...1...mark" responded the navigator

In a flash of light the _Iwo Jima_ shot out of regular space and began its journey to the Delta Octavius system.

-two weeks later-

McMillan walked forward onto the bridge in casual fatigues . Captains Jackson and Smith were already in attendance along with their lieutenants. Miller, also prepped for battle, walked in behind his captain and took his place by his side.

"Thank you for coming captains" Jakobi said to his top officers "The planet Sarna has been a bitch to crack but Hood's done it." As Jakobi spoke a hologram of the planet appeared above the table " Though the orbital platforms have been destroyed there is still a large amount of anti orbital torpedo silos left on the surface. Data gathered through the telemetry probes shows that they've pulled out all the stops here." The hologram of the planet had several transparent domes appear on its surface most overlapped each other. " These are the estimated ranges of their ground based radar and if you look closely you'll notice that-"

"Its impossible for any dropship to get within 5,000 kilometers" finished Miller

"That is correct lieutenant." acknowledged Jakobi

"That means that pelicans are definitely out of the question,means no way in for the marines, do they expect us to fight this whole damn war by ourselves?." mused Captain Jackson

"Actually Jackson i think you're wrong" said McMillan "look at this" He pointed to the southern-most silo on the continent- located within the city of New Alexandria "this is the most isolated of them all and doesn't have any support from the other silos. maybe if we use the prowler knock their range back a bit with some jamming pods...they could swoop in on some pelicans from 2,000 kilometers out and be under the radar horizon before they can pick them up."

"Well that would work, but there's a lot of variables in that plan McMillan. If the jamming fails anywhere along the line, a whole lotta marines will be dead because of that. and the jamming pods only work for about fifteen minutes before they burn through all their juice, that's not enough time to do more than drop them off and get the hell out of dodge." said Jackson

"Jackson, you don't have to like the plan in order to follow it." said Jakobi cutting through the argument smoothly. the Captains turned to look at their commanding officer " Jackson, McMillan's right, Hood and I came up with the same conclusion that this is their weakest point, and so its our best shot. Now McMillan, your squad will have the job of taking the primary command post at the center of New Alexandria." as he changed subjects a hologram of the complex appeared over the table. "However, due to the strong anti-air emplacements around the area, you'll have to be dropped about half a klick south of it and advance on foot."

"Wait I thought the marines were coming in with us. Aren't they supposed to be bringing in the heavy artillery?" Asked Lieutenant Yang

"They are but in order to get the most speed and the smallest radar signature possible they aren't going to be carrying anything big enough for us just to smash through." responded Jakobi. "Now, the main and secondary entrances are too heavily fortified for you to get through without heavy support, but these residential structures" he said as he pointed to a group of structures bordering the southeastern part of the complex "run close enough for you to advance through them right up to the complex perimeter. Once inside you'll have to plant the explosives on the facility's fuel depot located here." he said as he indicated them.

"That's not enough to neutralize a whole base Colonel." said Captain Smith

"They aren't captain" acknowledged Jakobi " that isn't even close enough. That's why your and Jackson's squads will also be entering the complex from the northwestern and southwestern approaches respectively. Your targets will be the ammo dumps located in those locations, set all three charges off simultaneously-"

"And the whole thing goes boom." finished McMillan

"Exactly." said Jakobi "Now I want you three to get back to your squads and get them prepped and ready for this, this might be one of our tougher fights and the whole outcome of this operation rests on the completion of your objectives"

"It always does sir."

"That's why we pay you Smith. the attack begins in three hours, dismissed." finished Jakobi.

Half an hour later McMillan walked into his squad's barracks where they were already suiting up for the mission ahead

"Hey Captain, sure ya wanna bring Benson for this? He's not exactly great at keeping a low profile." joked Garcia as he locked in the legplates of his armor

"That I May be Garcia, but theres a reason they say im the strong _silent_ type." shot back Benson

"Sure it is Benson, is that why when we were tasked to blow up that factory a few weeks back you said you'd only be a few minutes_ borrowed_ a scorpion from the loading yard and proceeded to blow the fuck out of everything when we all had perfectly good demolition charges?" asked Sullivan

"Creative Improvisation Corporal, nothing more" answered Benson grinning all the while

"Yeah well try to keep that improvisation to a minimum eh Sergeant?" requested the Corporal in question as he pulled on then locked in his pack "Damn this stuff is heavy, just how many charges we bringing?"

"Enough to set off a chain reaction to destroy a class 1 reinforced complex" Answered McMillan

"Oh, that's it? I thought we were gonna do something interesting today" Chuckled Garcia

"_Attention all personnel, drop range will be attained within 10 minutes report to your drop pods immediately_" droned the voice of the ship's AI- Eternal Night

"Well that's our song isn't it?" said McMillan "Lets move out troopers!"

"You OK Anderson? You look a little green." asked Garcia who was already getting his weapons before getting into his pod

"Yeah, Yeah im fine" responded Anderson who immediately dropped his polarized visor to cover his quite nervous looking face

"Hey Cap!" shouted Miller

"Yeah?"

"What's our loadout?"

"Miller, Garcia, Anderson and I will be going stealthy- suppressed SMG's and pistols- Benson we'll need you in case things go south grab a Spartan Laser and Assault rifle, Sullivan you get your standard package, and of course everybody gets grenades."

"Got it Captain." acknowledged the sniper of the team, grabbing a sniper rifle and a pistol from the armory

"OK troopers lets do what were best at!" shouted McMillan over the COM system as the Lunar Wolves got into their pods and locked the hatches "Lets start this express elevator to Hell!"


End file.
